[paragraph continues] Great Being, with kindly thought he took some water and washed off the blood, repeatedly wiping it. Then by the power of his charity nerve was united to nerve, flesh to flesh, and skin to skin, and the foot became just as before, not to be distinguished from the other one, and the Bodhisatta sat rejoicing in his original state. Sumukha, seeing how happy the king was all owing to his action, was highly delighted and thought, "This man has rendered us a great service, but we have done nothing for him. If he caught us for the king's ministers of state and took us to them, he would receive a large sum of money, and if he caught us for himself, he could sell us and still make great gain: I will question him somewhat." So in his desire to render him a service he put this question and said

If thou for thine own purposes didst set for us this snare,
Our freedom we accept from thee without a thought or care.

But otherwise, O fowler bold, in letting us go free,
Without the king's permission, sure, 'twere nought but robbery.

The fowler on hearing this said, "I did not catch you for myself, I was employed by Samyama, king of Benares," and he then told them the whole story, beginning from the time of the queen's seeing a vision down to the time when the king heard of the arrival of the geese, and said, "Friend Khemaka, try and catch one or two geese, and I will confer great honour on you," and despatched him with a provision for his journey.

On hearing this Sumukha thought, "This fowler, taking no account of his own livelihood, [365] in setting us free has wrought a difficult thing. But if we shall return hence to Cittakuta, neither the supernatural wisdom of the Dhatarattha king nor my act of friendship will be revealed, the fowler will not receive great honour, the king will not be established in the five moral laws, nor will the queen's desire be fulfilled." And he answered, "Friend, it being so, you cannot let us go: present us to the king and he shall deal with us according to his pleasure."

To make this clear, he spoke this stanza:

Thou art the servant of the king; his wishes then fulfil;
King Samyama shall deal with us according to his will.

On hearing this the fowler said, "O sirs, let it not be your pleasure to see the king. Kings verily are dangerous beings. They will either make tame geese of you or put you to death." Then Sumukha said, "Friend fowler, do not trouble yourself about us. By my preaching of the Law I made a cruel fellow like you soft-hearted. Why should I not do the same in the case of the king? Kings are wise and understand goodly words: quick and take us to the king. And in taking us do not carry us as captives, but put us in a cage of flowers and take us thus. For the